


is twenty six really that old?

by kakashienthusiast



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M, hi welcome to this weeks episode of longform kakashi introspection writing, sasuke its not nice to call ur teacher names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-02
Updated: 2018-08-02
Packaged: 2019-06-20 11:19:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15533073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kakashienthusiast/pseuds/kakashienthusiast
Summary: sasuke calls kakashi an old man. kakashi is 26 and has always been the baby in the room. he has a fun lil crisis about it. gai assures him they are both quite youthful





	is twenty six really that old?

     Kakashi had been called some pretty terrible things. A career in ANBU did not make you many friends, nor did it provide many opportunities to earn epithets that could be considered kind. Somehow, that still did not prepare him for the sting of the words of an especially pissy twelve year old.

     “Fuck off, old man.” That was what Sasuke had said to him. The “fuck off” part was fine, honestly. Coming from Sasuke, “fuck off” was practically a compliment. It was the other half, this “old man” thing he had said. _Is… is twenty six old?_ he had wondered in the moment. The day had continued on, pleasantly free from additional insults slung by sour teens, but Kakashi still found himself coming back to the question over and over again.

     For the vast majority of his life, Kakashi had been the youngest person in the room. In ANBU obviously, as most ANBU members had long since lost (or cut) their ties to normal village life. ANBU was where you went when your friends and family were all dead and you’d somehow managed to stick around a little longer. In Kakashi’s case, he’d been lucky enough to hit that moment at fourteen and as if that weren’t enough, he even had the talent to cut it as a standout jonin by then, so in ANBU he stayed. Until recently, at least.

     Even before ANBU though, there were some conversations that required the Hatake clan’s presence and here Kakashi had gotten lucky again. There weren’t a lot of people that became head of their clan at 5 years old, but it turned out that there was no minimum age required to participate in Konoha politics. It had apparently never come up, but none of the other clans bothered to wonder if someone that young should really have heard some of the more difficult discussions they had held.

     Honestly, he did feel old sometimes, like he’d done more shitty things than anyone else should do in a lifetime, but that didn’t mean he was actually an old man, right? This was the question he found himself hung up on at 1:19am on a Sunday night. It was one of the more light-hearted problems that had kept him from sleeping, but still, he had hoped to be fully rested for the training session he and Gai had scheduled for bright and early in the morning. He’d even tried his best to make sure he’d be there, at least to set a good example once in a while. _Is inviting Gai over for the night really trying my best to be on time?_ he wondered momentarily, but few distractions could really have disrupted his main question here.

     In all honesty, he really did feel bad about disturbing Gai, who was sleeping comfortably beside him. Kakashi would live through a bad night’s rest, but waking Gai up now would almost certainly disrupt his day. On the other hand, talking to Gai would really be a comfort and then they could probably both get a decent night’s sleep. _This is absolutely selfish_ , he thought, but still shook him awake. The moment he’d reached out, he realized he’d made a critical mistake.

     “KAKASHI!” Gai was wide awake, ready to face whatever ambush had fallen upon them. It might have been more impressive had there been a more serious threat than Kakashi’s impending existential crisis. “Wait, shh! Gai it’s okay! There’s nothing wrong, it’s just me.” He tried to defuse the moment before they ended up needing to fix a door or something. The moment Gai realized there was no urgent threat, he relaxed back into bed.

     “I appreciate your... diligence in ensuring we meet our teams on time this morning, Kakashi...” Gai was half asleep again, which really was impressive this time. “But I really think 2am is a bit too early of a start...” He was falling back into sleep fast, it was now or never for Kakashi to get Gai's thoughts on the issue at hand.

    “Gai, do you think we’re getting old?” Gai sat up to look Kakashi in the eyes.

    “Worried the spring of youth is running dry? That’s not like you, rival.” _That’s the most ridiculously Gai thing he could’ve said._ Kakashi didn’t know what he’d expected. Maybe at least, he’d expected the message to have felt a little less predictability to it. He asked again, pushing for a firmer response.

    “No, seriously, is twenty six old?”

     “Kakashi. Twenty six is not old.” Kakashi wrinkled his nose. That was the answer he’d wanted, and yet, coming from Gai it just didn’t feel like confirmation of anything. “We have decades of life to live still, we’re nowhere near the end yet.” That one wasn’t so comforting, but he let it slide. “You should rest, we have kids to train tomorrow.” That was true.

     The moment he’d finished his statement, Gai seemed to return immediately to sleep. _Again, really fucking impressive_ , Kakashi thought to himself. Sleep was sounding better by the second though, and it wasn’t every night that he got to spend with another person there. After what felt like at most a couple seconds of calm, the soft beep of an alarm was already sounding and sunlight was starting to light up the room. _I was that tired, huh?_ Gai was already up, halfway ready to go out the door. _Odd… weren’t we getting up at the same time?_

     The beeps increased in volume and Kakashi rolled over to silence it. The clock read 7:50am. _I promised to meet the kids… at 8… I have ten minutes..._ Kakashi weighed his options, but he didn’t have many. _I’m not gonna make it…_ He was late to most things nowadays, it was an important part of his charismatic teacher attitude.

     “Hey Gai!” he called into the other room. “I’m not gonna make it on time, stall for me?” Gai came to the door with a stern expression.

     “Kakashi, you really should treat your students with more respect. How can you ask them to respect you in return, if you won’t even make an effort to be on time.” Gai was right, of course, but that didn’t change the reality of the matter, which was that Kakashi was already late and it didn’t matter how he bad felt about it.

    “Ahh, I know. I’m already such a bad teacher, huh?” he sighed as regretfully as he could. “I’ll be there as soon as I can, just buy me some time, okay?” Gai did not seem especially convinced, but the longer they discussed it, the more dire the situation became.

    “I will give you another fifteen minutes, Kakashi.” Gai darkened his stern look further for emphasis.

    “Thanks, that’s plenty!” he said brightly. Gai sighed and headed for the door, but had obviously given in already.

    Kakashi had meant it when he said fifteen minutes was plenty and made it to the training grounds with time to catch the last few moments of Gai’s speech about what it meant to become a shinobi of the Leaf and the virtues of determination. It was pretty inspiring actually. _Maybe by being late, I actually did them a favor?_ He didn't, but there's no way the kids would know.  _Oh well!_ ✌️

**Author's Note:**

> tfw ur 26 and gay and adopt three rowdy children even tho ur life is a goddamn mess
> 
> also based on this post: https://kakashienthusiast.tumblr.com/post/176533340134  
> yes i want to add the yamato half but a bitch has depression ok?


End file.
